Bushfire bunkers promise safety but bring warnings

Bushfire safety is paramount in many parts of Australia but there are warnings that the installation of a backyard bunker can bring danger not refuge.

Transcript

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LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The bushfire season is far from over, even though you might think so after last week's deluge in Queensland. Fires are still burning in at least three states and temperatures will be back in the 30s by the weekend.

The ever-present threat of fire has led to a surge in the market for bushfire bunkers. Triple J's Tom Tilley has been investigating whether they're lifesavers or death traps.

TOM TILLEY, REPORTER: 1.5 metres underground and an hour's drive east of Melbourne, this is the bunker John Whiteoak hopes will save his life if a fire like Black Saturday destroys his house.

JOHN WHITEOAK: I've got a professional fire brigade Drager breathing apparatus which I'm very familiar with, having used it for years in the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and an aqua lung which is even simpler. Just turn it on, put it in your mouth and breathe.

TOM TILLEY: John's bunkers is one of dozens of do-it-yourself fire shelters built by Australians desperate to protect themselves from extreme bushfires. Next door his neighbour Peter Broman built a bunker straight after the Black Saturday fires, nearly killed him.

PETER BROMAN: This is the bunker we've constructed. Basically a half shipping container into the side of the hill. Insulated wall for the entrance. Flashing light on the roof so we can find it in smoke and so people know we're in here. It has a fire-rated door and it is completely air-tight, as you'll see when we close the door. It is dark in here because we're completely sealed in, which is why we have emergency lighting.

TOM TILLEY: I imagine if you've got a fire raging outside you here in a steel box with no airflow, how would that be in the event of an extreme fire?

PETER BROMAN: I think we'd be pretty uncomfortable for a while, but my belief is we'll survive.

TOM TILLEY: Justin Leonard from the CSIRO isn't so sure.

JUSTIN LEONARD, CSIRO: Under very severe conditions it'd be a real concern here. I think the humidity's gonna go to 100 per cent fairly quickly and the temperatures gonna be hot, so people's core temperatures are gonna start rising and it's just a question about how long you'd have to be in here before that gets risky.

NEIL SAVERY, DEP. COMM., VIC. BUILDING COMMISSION: It's an illegal structure. It sounds inherently unsafe and potentially is a death trap.

TOM TILLEY: Unaccredited do-it-yourself bunkers like the ones filmed by 7.30 are what the Victorian Building Commission have been warning people about.

NEIL SAVERY: We know from the experience of the 2009 Victorian bushfires that some people did perish in what they thought were bushfire shelters that they'd built themselves. Whether it was secondary to a wine cellar or it was some sort of building container, shipping container, they died. And it wasn't necessarily they died because of fire; they suffocated. The oxygen was extracted out of the bunker because it wasn't air-tight or the heat essentially killed them.

TOM TILLEY: Those eight deaths led the Black Saturday Royal Commission to recommend national regulations for personal fire shelters. They were introduced in May, 2010. So far, only one company's product has been accredited by the Victorian Building Commission and only after rigorous testing.

JUSTIN LEONARD: All the materials that are used to construct the bunker are all non-combustible and have really good performance up to a very high temperature. When the smoke starts to arrive, you lock these off and that's when your hour starts.

TOM TILLEY: What concerns authorities is that some companies have built bunkers that don't meet these standards. Sometimes with terrible results.

Manda Canny and Pauline Buchanan are neighbours who live in Far East Gippsland, over four hours' drive east of Melbourne. They were both keen to get a bunker after Black Saturday.

(Reading from pamphlet) "Be fire-ready, be underground, be in a fire-proof shelter." And down here, it says, "Somewhere to go when there's nowhere else to go."

TOM TILLEY: Manda and Pauline bought their bunkers from a company called Fire Proof Shelters which had been promoting its products online.

FIRE PROOF SHELTERS ADVERTISEMENT: You need to have a fire-proof shelter. ... Particularly being underground, you'll certainly be safe from the bushfire above.

MANDA CANNY: They told me that their bunker is more superior than any others. It'll be the first cab off the rank to be accredited and it's only a matter of time before they get it accredited.

TOM TILLEY: Despite a brochure that clearly marketed their products as personal fire shelters, the invoice was for a storage shelter.

PAULINE BUCHANAN: They even said to us, unfortunately they're not meant to sell them, but there was a way around it and that was to invoice us for a storage shelter. Now we agreed to that, but we were under the full understanding that as soon as their accreditation came through, they'd send us the appropriate paperwork.

TOM TILLEY: Fire Proof Shelters never had their products accredited.

NEIL SAVERY: I think that's almost unethical, that they would be doing that because the product that they're putting out there now, not accredited, is an illegal structure, and if it does achieve accreditation, it may be a different product to the one that they've put out right now.

MANDA CANNY: So this is like the first chamber which you through. It's a little tunnel. Through a second fire door, which they said was an extra safety feature. And as you can see, that's got wood on it and it's actually rotting. Into the big chamber down here, which drops down lower where there's a staircase. But the top of the staircase, that's the first step out of four and it's - you know, I'm up to the top - nearly the top of my gumboots. So, yeah, $14,000 for a underground swimming pool that you can't really swim in.

PAULINE BUCHANAN: The fact that in such a vulnerable time, people have come in and deceived us, um, yeah, it's just - it's devastating.

TOM TILLEY: 7.30 has made repeated attempts to contact Craig Morrison and Andrew Kelly, the men behind Fire Proof Shelters. There's been no response, but in a letter to Pauline Buchanan and her husband, Andrew Kelly rejected a number of their claims.

(company statement, male voiceover): "At no time did we tell you we could not sell the Fire Resistant Storage Shelter as a fire shelter. What we did tell you was that we were not legally able to sell you a Personal Fire Shelter. We sold you our Fire Resistant Storage Shelter."

TOM TILLEY: The company also claims that it warned the women that their product brochures were outdated.

(company statement, male voiceover): "They were only given out purely for the picture/design of what our Fire Resistant Storage Shelter looked like and nothing else."

TOM TILLEY: In 2011, Manda and Pauline lodged a civil claim with the Victorian Civil and Administration Tribunal. After 18 months and a series of hearings, they're still hoping for a resolution.

MANDA CANNY: You feel pretty violated, really.

PAULINE BUCHANAN: You do.

MANDA CANNY: And to me it's almost a criminal act, what they've done, because we've basically got nothing for our money. We'll keep battling on and hopefully, you know, at the end of the day, other people won't get sold dodgy bunkers. But, as far as getting our money back and being able to buy an accredited bunker, I'm not sure.